Last Wednesday saw the mighty Leeds Snowriders attend the Northern region qualifiers for the British University Indoor Championships at the local indoor snowdome. After dominating the competition last year the team were again hoping for a repeat performance across all disciplines. The morning kicked off with the individual ski slalom where a top 15 placing was needed after the first run to secure qualification for the national finals. Emily Pocock began positively for the females with a 3^rd place position. The boys followed successfully with six males also making the top 15. Bode Miller and Alex Ley leading the way with 6^th and 8^th positions, respectfully. With positions secured for the national finals the skiers could then afford to take risks and look to gain some time in the second run. Emily unfortunately took one risk to many crashing through a vertical gate. The males then had their turn to make the most of the opportunity and with the skiers coming down in reverse order, it was the lower ranked skiers who had the opportunity to make the most of the better conditioned course. Fraser Weir was the first to see the advantage and gained a position on his brother Russell Weir by nine hundredths of a second and securing 10^th position. Ben Thorne, the newest member to the team, also demonstrated his capabilities moving from 10^th to 9^th position.  Unfortunately for Alex Ley the now cut up course caught him out and he also took a fall, through a more technical part of the course. But it was Bode who once again excelled with his natural flare and rightly earned his incredible 5^th position.

Following the skiing the snowboarders took the course with 3 of the Snowriders placing and qualifying for the finals, Tom Eldred placed 8^th in a tightly packed field and was the only male boarder to go through. Julia Winslow placed 2^nd and Sophie Newstead just behind taking 5^th place. Following the individuals it was the team duals knockout competition. The 2^nd team having lost to close rivals to Manchester in the first round the 1^st team took advantage of a good draw comfortably beating Aberystwyth and Man Met on route to the final. They then lost in the best of three in a closely fought race with Northumbria. Following the success of the ski duals the boarders were looking to do the same but unfortunately due to an unlucky draw both the 1^st and 2^nd teams suffered defeats to Aberystwyth, who took their revenge, and the favourites Manchester.

The ski and snowboard slopestyle saw Leeds take a total of 5 medals in a spectacular display of technicality and style. Snowboard males dominated, with Rory Langdon-Down placing 1^st and Tom Eldred placing 3^rd.  Both Tom and Rory cleverly used the first feature, throwing huge 360 grabs over a corrugated spine. Julia Winslow placed 2^nd in female boarders with a beautifully executed run. The skiers took to the air all throwing themselves upside down to get a spot in the medal positions. Bode Miller cleaned up again taking 2^nd position with a number of our skiers qualifying for the finals.

All in all Leeds thrashed all the Northern competition and will take a large group of talented individuals to the National Finals at the end of this month.